Google Glasses With Heads Up Display Coming Soon?

Google Glasses - with HUD, or Heads Up Display - may be a real device on its way to consumers. The device probably has a front-facing camera to gather information; it probably has a transparent LCD or AMOLED display for one (or both!) eyes. Since it could serve as a phone, it would also have a data connection to Google's servers; this would make it an ideal augmented reality device.

As you can see, the rumors are short on details. However, it appears that these devices have been spotted, and they are similar in appearance to the Oakley Thump glasses shown below.

(Oakley Thump glasses - for comparison)

Science fiction fans have been looking for this device for a number of years. Consider the videoshades from Bruce Sterling's 1988 novel Islands in the Net, for example.

But if you really want to know what all the excitement is about, check out the overlay specs from Charles Stross' 2007 novel Halting State. Here's just a quick look - read the novel to get a really good idea of how Google Glasses might be used in real life:

He passes you a pair of heavy, black-rimmed military spectacles and a ruggedized phone... You put the glasses on and boot them. There's a brief flicker as they check your irises against their preloaded biometrics, then the world outside the BMW is drenched in unfamiliar information all the way to the horizon...

No word yet on when we'll see Google Glasses, or how much they would cost. But Google's got their information ready in the cloud. How about it, Google? Oh, and don't forget the APIs!